SEOUL – South Korean lawmakers on Wednesday called for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law only to reverse the move hours later, triggering the biggest political crisis in decades in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The surprise declaration late on Tuesday ignited a standoff with parliament which rejected his attempt to ban political activity and censor the media, as armed troops forced their way into the National Assembly building in Seoul.

A coalition of lawmakers from opposition parties said they planned to propose a bill to impeach Yoon on Wednesday which should be voted within 72 hours.

“The parliament should focus on immediately suspending the president’s business to pass an impeachment bill soonest,” Hwang Un-ha, one of the MPs in the coalition, told reporters.

Yoon’s chief of staff and senior secretaries offered to resign en masse, a presidential official said.

Yoon told the nation in a TV address that martial law was needed to defend the country from nuclear-armed North Korea and pro-North anti-state forces, and protect its free constitutional order, although he cited no specific threats.

Chaotic scenes ensued as helmeted troops climbed into the parliament building through smashed windows and military helicopters hovered overhead. Parliamentary aides sprayed fire extinguishers to push the soldiers back, and protesters scuffled with police outside.

The military said activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.

But within hours of the declaration, South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, unanimously passed a motion requiring martial law be lifted, including all 18 members present from Yoon’s party. The president then rescinded the declaration.

Protesters outside the National Assembly shouted and clapped. “We won!” they chanted, and one demonstrator banged on a drum.

More protests are expected on Wednesday with South Korea’s largest union coalition, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, planning to hold a rally in Seoul and vowing to strike until Yoon resigns.

The U.S. embassy urged U.S. citizens in South Korea to avoid areas where protests were taking place, while some major employers including Naver Corp and LG Electronics Inc advised employees to work from home.

Financial markets were volatile with South Korean stocks falling around 2% early on Wednesday, while the won steadied to trade around 1,418 to the dollar, having plunged to a two-year low.

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong held emergency meetings overnight and the finance ministry promised to prop up markets if needed.

“We will inject unlimited liquidity into stocks, bonds, short-term money market as well as forex market for the time being until they are fully normalised,” the government said in a statement.

South Korea’s foreign exchange authorities were suspected of selling U.S. dollars on the onshore market early on Wednesday to limit a decline in the won, two dealers said.

DODGED A BULLET
The main opposition Democratic Party called for Yoon, who has been in office since 2022, to resign or face impeachment over the martial law declaration, the first in South Korea since 1980.
“Even if martial law is lifted, he cannot avoid treason charges. It was clearly revealed to the entire nation that President Yoon could no longer run the country normally. He should step down,” senior DP member of parliament Park Chan-dae said in a statement.

The National Assembly can impeach the president if more than two-thirds of lawmakers vote for it. A trial is then held by the constitutional court, which can confirm it with a vote by six of the nine justices.

Yoon’s party controls 108 seats in the 300-member legislature.

If Yoon resigned or was removed from office, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader until a new election was held.

“South Korea as a nation dodged a bullet, but President Yoon may have shot himself in the foot,” said Danny Russel, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute think tank in the United States.

The crisis in a country that has been a democracy since the 1980s, and is a U.S. ally and major Asian economy, caused international alarm.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he welcomed Yoon’s decision to rescind the martial law declaration.

“We continue to expect political disagreements to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law,” Blinken said in a statement.

South Korea hosts around 28,500 American troops as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Planned defence talks and joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States were postponed, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Sweden’s prime minister also postponed a visit to South Korea, a spokesperson said.

Yoon, a career prosecutor, squeezed out a victory in the tightest presidential election in South Korean history in 2022, riding a wave of discontent over economic policy, scandals and gender wars.

But he has been unpopular, with his support ratings hovering at around 20% for months.

His People Power Party suffered a landslide defeat at a parliamentary election in April this year, ceding control of the unicameral assembly to opposition parties that captured nearly two-thirds of the seats.

There have been more than a dozen instances of martial law being declared since South Korea was established as a republic in 1948.

In 1980, a group of military officers led by Chun Doo-hwan forced then-President Choi Kyu-hah to proclaim martial law to crush calls by the opposition, labour and students for the restoration of democratic government. — Reuters

BEIJING – Chinese companies should be wary of buying U.S. chips as they are “no longer safe” and buy locally instead, four of the country’s top industry associations said on Tuesday in a rare coordinated response to Washington’s curbs on Chinese chipmakers.

The two nations have targeted each other’s economies in the last few days, escalating tensions even before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. Trump has promised to impose heavy tariffs on imported Chinese goods, reviving a trade war from his first four-year term as president.

The industry association warnings came after the United States on Monday launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, curbing exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment maker Naura Technology Group.

Their advice could affect U.S. chipmaking giants like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel which, despite export controls, have managed to keep selling products in the Chinese market. The three companies did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Semiconductor Industry Association, a U.S. trade association representing major chipmakers, said, “Coordinated calls in China to limit procurement of U.S. chips are unhelpful, and any claims that American chips are ‘no longer safe or reliable’ are simply inaccurate.”

The group reiterated its belief that “export controls should be narrow and targeted to meet specific national security objectives. … We encourage both governments to avoid further escalation.”

“China had been moving quite slowly or carefully in terms of retaliating against moves by the United States, but it seems pretty clear that now the gloves are off,” said Tom Nunlist, associate director at research firm Trivium China.

The associations cover some of China’s largest industries, including telecommunications, the digital economy, autos, and semiconductors and combined count 6,400 companies as members.
The statements, released shortly after each other, did not detail why U.S. chips were unsafe or unreliable.

Beijing on Tuesday also banned exports of rare minerals used in military applications, solar cells, fibre optic cables and other manufacturing processes. A White House National Security Council spokesperson said the U.S. would take necessary steps to try to deter other “coercive actions” from China and continue efforts to diversify supply chains away from that nation.

The Internet Society of China urged domestic companies to think carefully before procuring U.S. chips and seek to expand cooperation with chip firms from countries and regions other than the United States, according to its official WeChat account.

It also encouraged domestic firms to “proactively” use chips produced by both domestic and foreign-owned enterprises in China.

U.S. chip export controls have caused “substantial harm” to the health and development of China’s internet industry, it added. Companies targeted by the United States said they would be able to continue production due to their efforts to localize output.

The China Association of Communication Enterprises said it no longer saw U.S. chip products as reliable or safe and the Chinese government should investigate how secure the supply chain of the country’s critical information infrastructure was.
The warnings echo China’s treatment of U.S. memory chipmaker Micron MU.O, which became the subject of a cybersecurity review last year shortly after the U.S. imposed export controls on chipmaking technology to China.

China later barred Micron from selling its chips to key domestic industries, impacting a low-double-digit percentage of its total revenue.

Intel has also faced scrutiny. In October, another influential industry group, the Cybersecurity Association of China, called for a security review of Intel products, saying the U.S. chipmaker had “constantly harmed” the country’s national security and interests. — Reuters

BRUSSELS – Negotiators for EU institutions agreed a compromise on Tuesday on a ban on the import of commodities linked to deforestation, which will be delayed by a year but without changes proposed by EU lawmakers.

The European Commission in October proposed a 12-month delay until Dec. 30, 2025 after complaints from 20 EU countries, some companies and countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. EU governments backed the move.

However, EU lawmakers voted last month not only to delay the EU Deforestation Regulation, but also to water it down by proposing a new ‘no risk’ category of countries with vastly reduced checks. These would principally have been EU members.

Negotiators for EU governments and lawmakers met late on Tuesday and agreed on the 12-month delay, but with no changes to the existing rules.

Large operators and traders will have to respect the obligations from Dec. 30, 2025, and small enterprises six months later, a delay designed to allow companies around the world to adapt.
The Commission committed to assess whether requirements could be simplified for countries that have sustainable forest management practices.

An “emergency break” will also apply if the online system for companies is not fully operational by end-December 2025 or if the country classification is not published at least six months before.

The European People’s Party, the largest parliamentary group, which pushed for further changes, welcomed these add-ons.

The Greens group described the compromise of a delay with no amendments as a “partial but significant victory”.

The deforestation regulation aims to root deforestation out of supply chains for beef, soy, wood, cocoa, palm oil, coffee and rubber sold in Europe, so that EU consumers are not contributing to the destruction of forests from the Amazon to Southeast Asia.

It was hailed as a landmark in the fight against climate change, but emerging market countries from Brazil to Indonesia say it is protectionist and could exclude millions of poor, small-scale farmers from the EU market. — Reuters